Frank J. Buchman

Cowboy • Horseman • Writer

‘Plant’ Revival Most Essential

Our thumbs never have been green.

Philosophy is that a person who has beautiful growing plants all around has a “green thumb.”

Our thumbs have been black and blue, red and other colors from cleaning the barn, but never that of a shamrock. Perhaps that’s why we get down on luck so often.

While some traits can be blamed on heritage, that’s not our “green thumb” excuse. Mom always had the prettiest flower garden in town, and our home overflowed with philodendrons.

Every plant she touched thrived, and Dad was a productive crop-farmer too.

Along with our cowboy instincts, at one time, “we wanted to be a farmer,” and we failed.

The first attempt to grow corn on seven leased-acres was a flop, but Dad said it was because our lister-rows were so crooked the seeds couldn’t find their way out. Whatever, our plant growing skills have not improved.

Grass is considered the easiest crop to produce, but we usually can’t grow that either. One exception was 40-acres of pasture-turned-row-crop that we re-seeded. After 30 years, it’s pretty-doggone-good go-back Flint Hills, if we have to say so ourselves.

That’s the exception rather than the rule, as other tame grass plantings, including lawns, have been disasters.

However, we’ve always been successful in growing buck-brush, hedge, locust, cedars, and all of the other intrusive weeds and trees.

“Too early spring” has been the year’s description by many as the landscape is greener, earlier than in six-decades of memory. “Dock-weeds” in the corral were already three-feet tall and heading last week when we slowed them by a mow-down, although we won’t admit driving the tractor.

Ultimate proof of no “green thumb” came when the grapefruit tree we were trying to grow in a little flower pot by the kitchen sink croaked. A gift from one of our students, the “three-inch tree” survived for three years, without any change, and it too finally wilted away, despite our dedicated care.

Reminds us sadly of First Corinthians 3:5: “It’s not the one who plants or waters who is at the center of this process, but God who makes things grow.” Fortunately, Galatians 6:7: “One who plants in response to God harvests a crop of eternal life.” Moreover, First Corinthians 15:39: “We’re only looking at pre-resurrection ‘seeds,’ who can imagine what the resurrection ‘plants’ will be like.”

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